Posted: 07/03/09
Businesses celebrate awards success
Top-performing businesses and staff celebrated scooping gongs at West Nottinghamshire College’s first Employer Engagement Awards.
Employees of local, regional and national companies took to the stage at Eastwood Hall, Nottinghamshire, on Friday 6 March 2009 to collect awards across a range of categories.
Business leaders and college partners also attended the inaugural event, which was held to showcase the College’s successful training links with employers and the contribution this makes to commerce and industry.
More than 20 awards were presented across categories including Employer Awards, Learner Awards, Tutor Awards, Partner Awards, Overall Business Support, Stakeholder Awards and the Principal’s Award.
Local winners were Ashfield Court care home, which won the Commitment to Overall Workforce Development Award, and Center Parcs, which was named overall winner of the Employer Awards.
Samantha Wright, a plumber at Neil Shacklock’s Plumbing Heating Electrical, won the 19+ Learner Award while business development organisation Mansfield 2020 won the Stakeholder Award.
Awards also went to the College’s own staff and a school of learning.
Skills for Life tutor Pat Ward won the Innovation in Teaching and Learning Award while electrical installations tutor Darren Haynes was named winner of the Outstanding Teacher and Learning Support category.
Employer responsive advisor Claire Atkin topped the Overall Business Support category and the Engineering and Transport team collected the Outstanding Teaching and Learning Award.
High-profile national companies that received awards included First UK Bus, Arriva, DHL, DB Schenker and Trackwork.
First UK Bus scooped the Commitment to Skills for Life Training award while DHL Freight’s Coalville depot won the award for Recognisable Return on Investment.
Transport company Arriva and DB Schenker (formerly English Welsh and Scottish Railways) both enjoyed a double success.
Peter Gamble, a cleaning supervisor at Arriva, scooped the Lifelong Learning award while Frank King topped the Outstanding Union Learning Representative category.
DB Schenker won the award for Innovative Teaching / Assessment Methods and Martin Bridgwater, a driving instructor at its Didcot Depot, was named Overall Winner of the Learner Awards.
Railway engineers Trackwork bagged three awards. Apprentices Richard Lewis and Adam Walshaw were joint Learner Award winners while the company’s training manager John R Belton won the Principal’s Award. Trackwork was also crowned overall winner of the Partner Awards.
Meanwhile, RF Brooks, part of the Premier Foods Group, topped the Commitment to Equality and Diversity category.
Training providers also scooped awards for their work on behalf of the College.
Distinctive Training won the award for Outstanding Customer Service while Richard Owen, of Richard Owen Training Ltd, was overall winner of the Tutor Awards. Richard Owen Training Ltd also topped the Outstanding Success Rates category in the Partner Awards.
Awards were presented by Paul Southby, Regional Director of the Confederation of British Industry; Terry Laws, Partnership Director at the Learning and Skills Council; Jean Hardy, Chair of the College’s Corporation Board; Asha Khemka OBE, Principal and Chief Executive; and Tim Grant, Deputy Principal.
Graham Howe, Director of Employer Engagement at West Nottinghamshire College, said: “The awards were a fitting celebration of the successful partnerships between the College and employers across a range of sectors.
“We’re proud to help businesses succeed by providing them with bespoke training, which gives them a major return on investment and ensures they have the right people with the right skills. It was great to pay tribute to everybody that is contributing to this success.”
Principal and Chief Executive Asha Khemka OBE said: “We live in challenging economic times and so it is increasingly important to focus on the real business benefits that well-targeted training can bring.
“The evening provided a wonderful celebration of our work with employers of all types and sizes and I look forward to it becoming an annual event in the College calendar.”
West Nottinghamshire College provides bespoke workforce development programmes to more than 650 businesses across the UK, delivering a wide range of programmes including hundreds of NVQs and Skills for Life qualifications.
It is one of the country’s largest providers of the government’s flagship Train to Gain programme, which equips employees with relevant qualifications tailored to the needs of their business.
The full list of winners is:
Employer Awards
- Commitment to Overall Workforce Development: Ashfield Court
- Commitment to Skills for Life Training: First UK Bus
- Commitment to Equality and Diversity: RF Brookes
- Recognisable Return on Investment: DHL
- Overall Winner: Center Parcs
Learner Awards
- Learner Award: Richard Lewis and Adam Walshaw (Trackwork)
- 19+ Learner Award: Samantha Wright (Neil Shacklock’s Plumbing Heating Electrical)
- Lifelong Learning: Peter Gamble (Arriva)
- Overall winner: Martin Bridgwater (DB Schenker)
Tutor Awards
- Outstanding Union Learning Representative: Frank King (Arriva)
- Innovation in Teaching and Learning: Pat Ward (West Nottinghamshire College)
- Outstanding Teacher and Learner Support: Darren Haynes (West Nottinghamshire College)
- Overall Winner: Richard Owen (Richard Owen Training Ltd)
Partner Awards
- Outstanding Teaching and Learning: West Nottinghamshire College Engineering and Transport
- Outstanding Customer Service: Distinctive Training
- Innovative Teaching / Assessment Methods: DB Schenker
- Outstanding Success Rates: Richard Owen (Richard Owen Training Ltd)
- Overall Winner: Trackwork
Overall Business Support
- Winner: Claire Atkin (West Nottinghamshire College)
Stakeholder Award
Principal’s Award
- Winner: John Belton (Trackwork)
